Tag: Nevada

Book Review: A Man Named Raglan/Gun Junction by John Callahan and Barry Cord, respectively

While most of the Ace Doubles (two short books fused together and printed upside down from each other) I’ve read are science fiction, Ace also put out mysteries and westerns in the format. This book is one of the Westerns, and is volume M-100, first of the 45¢ series.

A Man Named Raglan takes place during the Civil War, as Nevada Territory becomes a state. Wells Fargo shotgun rider Dan Raglan isn’t much fussed about it. He did his bit for the Union up until his leg took a bullet at Chancellorsville, and that’s the end of the war for him, thank you. His stagecoach driver partner Steve Munson is more concerned. Munson’s a loyal son of the South, and doesn’t like how it’s getting whipped, and Nevada’s coming in on the side of the North.

Neither of them is pleased when they’re ambushed by road agents claiming to be Confederate irregulars here to confiscate that sweet Wells Fargo moneybox for the war effort. When it turns out Wells Fargo hadn’t sent any cash on this trip, the owlhoots have to settle for robbing the passengers instead. They had the drop on Raglan through the robbery, but as the robbers are departing, one’s horse shies, and Raglan has a chance to bring his rifle to bear.

Raglan is about to squeeze the trigger when the road agent’s mask slips–and he recognizes the man as Bob Worden, kid brother of Elizabeth Worden, the woman Raglan is courting. Raglan hesitates just long enough for Bob to regain his balance and escape.

Munson is furious and accuses Raglan of cowardice. the two men have a fist fight that reflects well on neither of them, but female passenger Lil Shannon seems to sympathize more with Raglan. Raglan refuses to identify Bob, even when crack Wells Fargo agent Ben Nasmith asks him directly, so he’s out of a job.

Elizabeth isn’t particularly grateful about Raglan shielding her brother, as she doesn’t believe Bob could have been involved in the first place. Oh, and the gang Bob was with has realized that Raglan can finger one of their members, and wants the former shotgun rider dead to prevent that. For a man who thought his war was over, Raglan’s got a lot of fighting to do!

This is a decent enough Western, and I like how Raglan’s bum leg realistically causes difficulty for him. He spends a good half of the time laid up in bed one way or another.

Less good is some historical sleight of hand that allows Raglan (and by extension the reader) to admire his Confederate foes, considering them honorable men fighting for an almost worthy cause. There is zero mention of slavery, and not one black person appears, despite Virginia City’s actual demographics at that time in history. The latter was typical of Westerns in the 1960s, but it sticks out like a sort thumb because of the storyline.

From Raglan’s perspective, there’s a mystery element to the story, but savvy readers will figure out the big twists well ahead of him.

Gun Junction is set in Texas. The small town of Fulton has been taken over by Luke McQuade’s gang of outlaws. They lynched the sheriff, beat the deputy so bad he’ll never come back, and murdered the U.S. Marshal who came into town to avenge the sheriff. Also, for some reason, they seem intent on preventing the Desert Line Railroad from being finished.

Deputy Marshal Matt Vickers is the next lawman to ride into town, though he comes incognito. He’s brought two other men, ex-Ranger Doc Emory, and hard-bitten Kip Billens, the brother of the murdered sheriff. Each of the men carries his own burden of secrets, and not all of them will leave Fulton alive.

This is a dark-themed and brooding story, and is better about delivering its twists than its partner. (The book’s blurb did give a bit too much away.) Overall, it’s better-written, too.

Both books use the “protagonist interrupts jerk who’s hitting on an uninterested woman who then takes an interest in the protagonist” cliche–Gun Junction plays it out better as while the young woman in question does fancy Matt Vickers, she’s fully aware he’s not a good long-term marriage prospect. Also, both books have the phrase “don’t make war on women.”

I am given to understand that Gun Junction was later reprinted separately, and that may be a better bet than trying to track down the relatively rare Ace Double printing.

Frederick Dannay, who along with Manfred B. Lee wrote the Ellery Queen mystery stories, was asked by Mercury Press to be the editor of a new magazine that would print a higher class of detective stories than the general run of pulps, with the first issue of EQMM coming out in 1941. At first it was a reprint magazine, featuring classic tales by writers like Agatha Christie and Cornell Woolrich. But by the seventh issue, new stories began to appear, and one, “The Bow Street Runner” by Samuel Duff, was that author’s first professional sale.

Over the years, Mr. Dannay sought out new writers to appear in “The Department of First Stories”, many of whom went on to great success. His successors have carried on that tradition, and as part of the magazine’s 75th Anniversary celebration, the July issue #898 features new stories by authors who got their start in EQMM.

“The Staff of Asclepius” by Stephen Saylor features his Roman sleuth Gordianus the Finder. This one is set in his youth, when Gordianus and a friend were on a trip to see the Seven Wonders of the World. They winter in Rhodes, home of the fabled Colossus. During their enforced idleness, Gordianus learns of a shipping magnate named Rhosander who has suffered several bouts of illness, then miraculously recovered due to wacky cures he dreamed of in the temple of the healing god. Perhaps these episodes are the symptoms of some underlying illness…but they could also be slow poison. The illustration has male rear nudity, which is germane to the story.

“Department of First Stories: A History” by Marvin Lachman reveals the material I cited at the beginning of this review, but in much, much more detail, including a list of some of the most famous writers to debut in the magazine and their accomplishments.

“The Granite Kitchen” by David Morrell is a monologue to a real estate agent by a woman selling her home. She’s obsessed with making her homes just so, always moving on to a bigger project once she has it right. And either she has the unluckiest bunch of family and friends I have ever seen, or…. Chilling.

“Blog Bytes” by Bill Crider is a regular column of mystery-related internet sites; this time focusing on fans of the Ellery Queen stories.

“The Jury Box” by Steve Steinbock is a more traditional book review column. Among other works, this month it mentions several novels starring famous writers as the detectives, including A Riot Most Uncouth by Daniel Friedman, which I reviewed a while back.

“Get Them Out” by Nancy Pickard has a homeless man kicked out of a shelter for making a disturbance. The new janitor at an apartment building offers him a place to sleep in the basement, but his motives may not be altruistic. Ends on an ambiguous note.

“Black Monday” by John H. Sherman is a first story. Howard, a lab technician at a hospital, has been having problems with alcohol and painkiller addiction, and has missing time. His dreams of swimming have gone dark, and he can’t remember what he did last night.

“The Red Tattoo” by Percy Spurlark Parker is a noirish tale featuring Las Vegas private eye Trevor Oaks. He’s hired to find a man’s missing identical twin; the only clue is that the twin was seen in LV with a woman who had a red tattoo.

“The Hangman” by David Dean is the story of a cops-and-robbers game gone south, and the years later sequel. Depressing.

“Flight” by Trina Corey is set in a nursing home during the Vietnam War era (I suspect to avoid easy fixes by technology.) Rachel is crippled by multiple sclerosis, unable to speak or write. Perhaps that’s why a murderer has taken to coming into her room at night to gloat, knowing that she can’t tell anyone. But Rachel still has her mind, and there’s a young nurse that hasn’t lost her ability to care yet, and maybe there’s a way to stop the killer.

“The Man from Away” by Brendan DuBois takes place in New Hampshire and Boston. People tell Amos Wilson he’s too gullible, that his estranged wife is a gold digger he’s better off without. But when she is accidentally killed by tourists who then vanish, Amos feels obligated to do something about it. He may be long-suffering, but he’s not stupid. Satisfying.

“Consuming Passion” by Martin Edwards is about two old friends, one a master chef, the other a restaurant critic, having dinner together. It does not end well.

“The Peter Rabbit Killers” by Laura Benedict closes out the issue with a little girl whose mother has an obsession with cleanliness, and a neighbor girl who is bullying and not at all clean. Another creepy tale.

Overall, a strong issue with many fine stories. I liked “Flight” the best, while “Black Monday” and “The Hangman” were less well done. This issue is certainly worth picking up while the anniversary celebration is still on.

In an alternate history, the newly-formed United Nations created an extra-national force called the Justicariat. Its members, the Justicars, hunt down and kill those they believe to be criminals, not bound by any authority or law higher than themselves. They have absolute immunity from local laws or regulations, though many will cooperate with/commandeer local law enforcement when it is convenient for them.

Two North American Justicars, Brian Galan and Noriko Tachibana, are assigned to a multi-jurisdiction operation when it’s learned an international syndicate has acquired what appears to be a doomsday weapon. Shortly after they arrive on the remote island, the mission goes south, and it’s unclear just how many enemies the Justicars actually have.

In the early part of the novel, we see both Justicar Galan and Justicar Tachibana on more typical operations, Galan tracking down a cop killer in Detroit, and Tachibana dealing with a mob boss in Las Vegas. Both of these end with considerable collateral deaths, although only Tachibana receives a mild reprimand; Galan faces no repercussions for straight up murdering a police officer for daring to punch him. We are assured that the Justicars themselves deal with Justicars who have gone wrong.

I’d expect there to be more suspicion of the Justicariat among the general population, but they seem to be generally admired, and the problem of potential corruption from their legal immunity is handwaved with intensive and selective training.

This is closest to the “military SF” subgenre, I think, with lots of loving description of weapons, emphasis on tactics, and stuff blowing up. There’s lots of action in here, with a climax out of a James Bond movie.

Sadly, little is done with the alternate history aspect of the story–there do seem to be more serial killers and terrorists than in our timeline, or perhaps the regular governments have left them to be taken care of by the Justicars since they don’t have to care about human rights or actual proof. I was reminded of Judge Dredd and how it’s made clear in that series that the Judges are part of the problem as well as the makeshift solution.

Torture is indulged in by both villains and nominal good guys, and rape is mentioned but does not happen on screen. Several people die in horrible ways beyond just violence. It’s mentioned more than once that mercy is a weakness, and forcibly demonstrated.

To be honest, the Justicariat creeps me out, so I wasn’t as sympathetic to the main characters as I suspect I was supposed to be. It’s a battle of very dark grey vs. absolute black.

From a writing aspect, there are multiple viewpoints (none from the bad guy side), and there’s a fair amount of redundancy between the characters’ accounts and dwelling on minutia–I think this novel could have been a good ten percent shorter with nothing of importance lost.

Still, if you are looking for science fiction action starring people who don’t have to deal with pettifogging regulations when they eliminate criminal scum, you could do worse. The end has a strong sequel hook, and that book is in the works.

Book Review: Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic edited by David Sklar & Sarah Avery

Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.

This fantasy anthology has a dual theme, as indicated by its title; magic as transaction, and magic while traveling. The former theme brings to mind the classic Faustian bargain story, and the preface mentions that the editors got a bushel full of them, only a few making the cut.

There are eighteen stories, nine for each theme, divided into groups of three by subtheme, such as “Bad Roads.” Most of the stories are new, but some have been previously printed. Some standouts include:

“Ghost Diamonds” by Scott Hungerford. A woman and her niece discover that compressing crematorium ashes into a diamond allows calling the ghost of the deceased. But they aren’t the only ones who have made this discovery, and someone’s been switching the ghost diamonds with fakes. But why?

“Across the Darien Gap” by Daniel Braum. A guide attempts to take a hunted woman through the rain forest between Central and South America. His two-dimensional thinking may doom them. This one has been made into an episode of Psuedopod, a horror podcast, and is now being lengthened into a book.

“Only a Week” by Joyce Chng. This one might actually be science fiction, set in a futuristic Chinatown. A courtesan seeks to regain her youthful beauty, but the medicine has side effects and can be taken only for one week….

“And the Deep Blue Sea” by Elizabeth Bear. A courier must cross the postapocalyptic Southwest to deliver vital supplies. But a deal she made years ago is coming due. Can Harrie finish her delivery with the devil himself in the way?

There’s a good diversity of protagonists, and both happy and sad endings. A couple of stories are perhaps a little too cliche, but the quality is generally good.

Unlike many small press books I’ve read lately, the proofreading is excellent.

I would recommend this book to fantasy fans in general, and modern fantasy fans in particular.

Frank Morgan (John Bromfield) was the Sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona and then became a United States Marshal in a series that ran from 1956 to 1960. While the show was Western-flavored, it was more police procedural than cowboy show.

I watched four episodes, two from the first part and two from after the retool, on DVD.

“The Red-Headed Visitor” An auto mechanic is missing, and turns up murdered. Suspicion initially rests on his pharmacist brother in law, with whom he’d quarreled, but the sheriff suddenly realizes that a tourist at a local resort is a known criminal. The audience knows this from the beginning, as we see the redhead buy blond hair dye, and the mechanic make a gesture that disparages the visitor’s masculinity.

“Bank Robbery” Exactly what it sounds like. Two clever robbers have hit several banks, but take a little too long to case their next job. This makes the tellers suspicious, and the sheriff comes up with a trap. Neither plan goes right, but this is a cop show.

“Rest In Peace” A guard implicated in an armored car robbery is shot and left for dead. Things get complicated at the hospital when two women show up, both claiming to be his wife. (One of them is lying.) In a desperate attempt to escape, the criminals kidnap a deputy marshal.

“The Diner” Two escaped convicts try to track down a third member of their gang who they believe is holding out money on them. It turns into a hostage situation which predictably doesn’t end well for them. The diner of the title appears at the beginning; the cook is an ex-con the escapees pump for information.

It’s an average TV show of its period, most interesting for its time capsule qualities and the fact that it was largely shot in Bisbee, Arizona and locals can probably spot many of the buildings.

The Lone Wolf was Michael Lanyard, a jewel thief turned private detective. He was created in 1914 by Louis Joseph Vance, starred in a number of books, and then over twenty movies and a radio show.

What we’re concerned with here is the television show, with Louis Hayward as the title character, which ran 1954-1955 and also ran in syndication as Streets of Danger. None of the episodes I saw mentioned the jewel thief past, although it was clear there was some shadiness. This version carried a unique medallion that served as his calling card. The DVD had five episodes.

“The Las Vegas Story” The Lone Wolf is hired to find a man who’d been falsely accused of murder and convince him to come in for a trial. It’s more complicated than that. Highlights include DeForest Kelly as a murder victim, and a tense but overlong chase scene set inside Hoover Dam (I’m guessing they had to pay big bucks for the location shoot and decided to milk it.)

“The Beverly Hills Story” Michael Lanyard is surprised to discover that he is now a married man, although he does have a gap in his memories of Reno. Mrs. Lanyard certainly knows more about him than she should! The real game is blackmail.

“The Oil Story” The Lone Wolf is called to Oklahoma. It seems a violent criminal has kidnapped his son from his ex-wife. Lanyard goes undercover as a roughneck (badly, he doesn’t have the hands of an oil worker) and seeks out the rest of the story. The father has a black servant who looks embarrassed to be in this role, like the actor was desperate for a paycheck and this was the best work he could find.

“The Karachi Story” Most of the story takes place in India, as the leader of a religious group has asked Lanyard to protect his son. Seems there are two factions in the sect, the one that builds hospitals and soup kitchens, and the one that wants to spend all the money improving the living standards of the priests. All well and good, but there are also two Michael Lanyards! Identity confusion abounds. All the South Asian people are played by white Americans in brownface.

“The Stamp Story” A valuable stamp has gone missing, believed stolen, and Lanyard is called in to find it for the mysterious collector “Deep River.” Much fun is had with the antics of an eccentric stamp dealer and another stamp collector who’s blind. The blind man’s daughter has a rare hairstyle, I don’t know the actual name, but it frosts the forelocks into curly horn shapes.

Mr. Hayward portrays the Lone Wolf as a bit cynical, willing to flirt with women but seldom going further, and a vicious in-fighter. The series is old-fashioned, but has its charms.

First, a bit of news: I have completed my coursework for an Associate’s Degree in Business Management, and should soon have the official recognition. It’s been a rough couple of years, so I am relieved.

Racket Squad ran on television from 1950 to 1953, telling fictionalized versions of actual cases where confidence artists and other racketeers bilked Americans of their money. Reed Hadley played Captain John Braddock, who narrated the episodes and provided tips on how to spot con games. (He would go on to star in the previously-reviewed Public Defender, which had a very similar format.) Each episode opened with a “City Police” car pulling up to “City Hall” and a police dispatcher intoning “rrRacket Squad!”

I watched six episodes on DVD:

“Kite High” stars a funeral director whose odious mother-in-law is poisoning his wife against him. In fairness, he’s the kind of dope who goes off to a convention, changes hotels without telling his wife, and then decides to go hunting with a buddy for three days after the convention, also without notifying his wife. Rather than try to hash things out with his spouse (her mother is living with them due to a mild disability), he goes off to Las Vegas. While there, he is snookered into playing at a “private” casino that alters (“kites”) the checks he uses to pay for chips to much higher amounts. Once he figures this out, the funeral director confronts the racketeers and it goes badly for him. Just as he’s about to be killed, the Racket Squad just happens to bust in, as they were pursuing related leads.

“The Bill of Sale Racket” involves two men that “buy” gas stations for far more than they’re worth, using a thirty-day promissory note. They then turn around and sell the stations at rock-bottom prices to third parties who are unaware that the bill of sale has been received fraudulently. A man whose wife was taken advantage of this way while he was off in the Korean War sets a trap for the conmen, and there’s an extended shootout in which no one actually gets hit. (Surprisingly realistic!)

“Desperate Money” focuses on a aging tailor with fading eyesight who’s having a bad season. Faced with eviction, he turns to a loan shark operating out of a boxing gym. When the bad season lasts two weeks longer than expected due to hot weather, the loan shark starts ramping up the interest and getting increasingly violent. The tailor is not stated to be Jewish, but there are really unsubtle clues. Also notable in that the bartender who steers the tailor to the loan shark doesn’t realize how violent the man is, because he’s always made his payments on time. He learns the hard way when he asks the shark to have mercy on the tailor.

“The System” has a man on vacation meet an attractive young woman and her invalid father. Several weekend dates later, the father reveals that he, his daughter and their manservant live comfortably because the father has a near infallible betting system. Using a trick to confuse the mark about the time, the con artists make it look like they can predict the outcome of horse races.

“His Brother’s Keeper” is a tearjerker of a story about a bum named Longshot who hits upon pretending to be deaf to beg for money for his gambling habit. This works great, except that it turns out all the deaf beggars in the city have been co-opted by a fake charity that sends them out to beg, then confiscates their earnings in exchange for miserable bunks and thin soup. Initially, Longshot just plans to hide enough money away to escape on, but when one of the actual deaf people becomes ill due to the poor treatment, Longshot decides he has to step up and help Captain Braddock smash the racket, regardless of personal cost. One of the villains also played the loan shark in “Desperate Money”, and there’s a particularly good transition shot from the beggars’ miserable fare to the fine steak that the head of the “charity” enjoys while urging his henchman to cut expenses.

“Take a Little, Leave a Little” involves a particularly smooth operator that poses as an oil geologist. That is, he uses the name of a real geologist with a good record, so when people do credit checks and backgrounds on him, they find the good news and are more likely to believe his story about a rich oil deposit near town. He’s so slick, in fact, that his victims don’t technically lose money, and thus usually won’t call the cops. However, under RICO, if it’s possible to prove a pattern of racketeering behavior, that’s enough to catch you on, and he goes to the well once too often.

While some of these scams are dated and wouldn’t work as well any more, others have been able to adjust to modern times. Altering checks has given way to altering credit card charges. Payday loan offices do much the same work the loan sharks did. And some rackets work the same as they ever did. As Captain Braddock often reminds us, “It could happen to you.”

“Kite HIgh” relies heavily on old-fashioned stereotypes about marriage and mothers in law–younger viewers may find the family’s behavior baffling. The most affecting story is “His Brother’s Keeper,” thank goodness it’s much easier for deaf people to get work these days. It’s a well done series for its time.

Book Review: The 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies for Modern Business by Lan Bercu

Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.

Beginning some time in the late 1970s, when it became obvious that Japan had become an economic powerhouse, American businesses began taking an interest in Asian philosophies that might explain why companies from those areas were doing so well, especially in industries where America was faltering. Thus, books for business explicating on The Five Rings, The Art of War and so forth have been written and often sold well.

This is the latest book in that tradition. The author was born and raised in Vietnam, where The 36 Strategies, a text on warfare believed to have been compiled during China’s Warring States period, is read by schoolchildren. She has since found the information included helpful in her career as a speaker on business and international matters.

The main text is divided into thirty-six short chapters, one for each strategy. Each starts with a short story about ancient Chinese warfare, then one or more examples of how modern businesses have implemented these strategies, whether by name or by chance. This is followed by translation into more basic tips, and questions for the business to ask itself based on the strategy.

Some of the strategies have poetic sounding titles, like “slough off the cicada’s golden shell” or “borrow a corpse to resurrect a soul”, while others are more plain-spoken, like “kill with a borrowed knife.” The strategies themselves, however, tend to be simple to understand, if sometimes difficult to apply to a given situation. That last bit is why they’re arranged by type; some are better when you have a clear advantage, others when you’re on the defensive or in a losing position.

It should be noted that the more literal applications of some of these strategies to business, such as “replace the beam with rotted timbers” and “deck the tree with false blossoms” may be considered unethical, and in some cases are outright illegal. The author points out that businesses (and customers) should be aware of these strategies anyway, to help defend against them.

The short chapters and copious examples make this a good read for the busy person on the go; this is one time I would suggest buying the e-book version. The book comes with an ad for the author’s services, bibliography and an index.

The utility of this book will depend on whether you already have another of the books relating the 36 strategies to business. If so, you may not need this one. This book also has a lot of synergy with The Art of War, so you may want to invest in one of the business books that concentrate on that text as well.

In war, do not repeat the tactics that have gained you one victory. Rather, let your methods be determined by the infinite variety of circumstances. — Sun Tzu

Book Review: Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster who Created Vegas Poker by Doug J. Swanson

Disclaimer: I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway in the expectation that I would review it. This was an Advance Uncorrected Proof copy, and there will be changes to the final product.

As the subtitle indicates, this is a biography of Benny Binion, who was born in a tiny town in Texas in 1904 to a horse trader’s family, and rose through moxie, violence and crime to be a beloved fixture of Las Vegas. Like many gangsters, Mr. Binion’s life makes for colorful reading, full of narrow escapes, famous names and death.

The picture painted of Dallas in the 1930-40s is not a flattering one. Mr. Binion started in the numbers racket, and eventually managed to break into the lucrative and more “respectable” dice gambling world. He was perhaps a victim of his own success. That and somebody kept trying to kill one of his major rivals, Herbert Noble, and everyone was pretty sure Mr. Binion was behind it.

So Benny Binion had to light out for Las Vegas, where gambling was legal and eventually became the owner of the Horseshoe casino, best known for its “no-limit” dice games. Later he also became the founder of the World Series of Poker.

Like many gangsters, Benny Binion was a good friend to those he liked, and generous to the disadvantaged. But get on his wrong side, and he did not stint on the anger. As he got older, the people of Las Vegas preferred to remember his good side.

Since Mr. Binion tended to lie a lot, and quite a few allegations were never proved, the author has had to rely on secondary and unreliable sources for much of the story. After lighting out for Las Vegas, the only thing Mr. Binion was ever convicted on was tax evasion. But there sure were a lot of people he didn’t like that wound up dead under suspicious circumstances.

There’s also asides on various people who also affected circumstances in Dallas or Las Vegas, such as Howard Hughes, who almost inadvertently changed the way casinos were owned just so he could hole up in his room in peace.

There are black and white photos at the beginning of the chapters, end notes sourcing the quotations, and a selected bibliography. The index is not in the uncorrected proof, but should be in place for the final product (scheduled for August 2014.)

I did not know about most of the information in this book, particularly the bits set in Texas. It’s a good book for true crime fans, and will have local interest for people in Las Vegas and Dallas. it certainly makes a change from Chicago gangsters!

On a very alternate Earth, humanity has several different subspecies that do not exist on ours. The most notable of these are Witches, who have the inherent ability to use magic, and Weapons, humans who can shapeshift into…weapons…that can then be wielded by more standard humans known as Meisters. Meisters and Weapons are trained in Death City, Nevada to be the agents of Shinigami, the god of death.

It seems that Asura, a god of madness, is awakening, and this has started a battle between the witches Medusa and Arachne to control the power of madness, both also fighting the forces of the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA.)

As of #17, Arachne has been destroyed, and the top students of DWMA have become the Spartoi unit. However, a new threat named Noah has appeared and imprisoned Death the Kid (Shinigami’s son) inside the Book of Eibon. Meanwhile, Medusa has been experimenting on her child Crona to increase that one’s power of Black Blood.

After a three-way standoff between Medusa’s witches, the DWMA and Noah’s minions, the Spartoi begin their exploration of their copy of the Book of Eibon in an effort to rescue Death the Kid. But each chapter is a deadly sin, and they may well fall at the first obstacle, Lust.

There some interesting world-building in this series, and some memorable characters. As the cast has expanded, it’s gotten more diverse as well–not all Witches are irredeemably evil, for example.

Like many shounen series, the fanservice can get a little annoying, especially as some of the Witches are given to wearing really dubious outfits. The Lust chapter seems like it’s going to have some fun with this, though, as the characters find their genders swapped.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. This was an Advanced Reading Copy, and small changes may be made in the final product.

“Noir”, here, is short for noir fiction, a form of hard-boiled crime fiction by analogy with the cinematic film noir. Noir fiction tends to focus on the seedier side of life, filled with petty criminals, people driven to extremes by circumstance, and bittersweet at best resolutions. Akashic Books has been putting out anthologies of noir short stories grouped by location since 2004, and this is a “best of” collection.

The stories are grouped by themes such as “True Grit” and “Under the Influence”, and range across the continental United States. (Yes, that includes the Twin Cities.) Most are contemporary (one has Google Maps as a plot point) but there are a couple of period pieces set in the 1940s and Fifties.

Some standout stories include: “Animal Rescue” by Dennis Lehane (a man finds an abandoned puppy, and decides to keep it), “Run Kiss Daddy” by Joyce Carol Oates (a man does not want to upset his new family), “Mastermind” by Reed Farrell Coleman (a dumb crook comes up with the perfect crime), “Loot” by Julie Smith (various people try to cash in on Hurricane Katrina), “Helper” by Joseph Bruchac (revenge comes looking for Indian Charlie, but he’s no pushover) and “Feeding Frenzy” by Tim Broderick (in comic book format, a Wall Street firm has lost a big contract, and the employees search for someone to blame.)

Thirty-seven stories in total, 500+ pages of entertainment. There’s also a list of the other stories in the volumes these were reprinted from, and a list of awards the series has garnered.

If the genre is not warning enough, I should mention that sordid violence is common in these stories, and some may be triggery.

Overall, the stories are of good quality, and represent an excellent cross-section of today’s noir writers. It’s good value for money.